QUESTION

Requirements:

1. 1.     Words count : 1500
2. 2.     The Essay must be returned by9 am 4^thMay !
3. the short essay based on the former case study report as the basis discuss the following statement Public policy can never be value free, nor can solutions to problems always be based on evidence.this should be written as an academic essay and follow the usual conventions of referencing and including a bibliography.

(the essay is really important to me because it occupied on 30% of the whole work. pls make sure follow the steps and requirements )

1. Need at least 8 references.
2. Must use Turnitin (matching software testing system to make sure no plagiarism.) important!

here is the former assignments:

Introduction

The National Broadband Network (NBN) is an open accessedwholesale, national  network that was put forward for development in Australia. Internet connections with a speed of about 1 GB per second would be purchased by retail service providers. Once this purchase is complete, the retail service providers put forth different services and connections to consumers.  When the idea for the NBN was first brought up, there was a ofofspecultion and criticism about the plans put forth.

The NBN was estimated to take a 10 year period of construction with a budget of $35.9 billion. To operate NBN, a government owned corporation called NBN Co. was started. The first connections were released in five release sites in April 2011. By June 2012, 93 percent of the population is estimated to have access to the fibre. The idea is to graually replace the current copper network that Telstra owns.  NBN Co and Telstra made an agreement which promised to move all of Telstras customers within NBN and also allow entry to the exchange space and the vast network. (Jock Given, (2008))

Previous attempts

In 2003, the governments Broadband dvisory Group suggeested that the Federal Governement should work with other stakeholders in the government and industries to form a national broadband network. . In 2005 the then owner of the national copper network put forward the idea to upgrade the old network, which would include the layout on the node network of a fibre.  At this point, the Federal Government held majority of shares in Telstra, and the plan that was put forth didn’t involve any other governement investment. In 2006, Testra let go of the plns for the new network after reaching an impasse in negotiations with ACCC, called as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

In June 2006 the Government put forth the Broadband Connect policy aiming at the rural and regional areas to receive a higher percentage of access to broadband services.

In the 2007 federal elections, the oppositonlabour party leaders promised that of they were elected, they would construct a national broadband network of much higher speeds.  They said that the contribution from the government would be received by selling theur shares that currently lay with Telstra After the election, the new Government kept their promise and put forth a request for proposals to build a new NBN. Although due to the global financial crisis, there no means to raise the necessary requirements financially or with the government and therfore the RFP was eliminated. (Patrick Xavier, (2003))

Current policy

After eliminating the initial RFP, in April 2009, the Rudd Government proclaimed that it would circumvent the current copper network and establish a new national network putting together fixed wireless technologies, fibres in the premises along with other satellite technologies. As an experiment, Tasmania was chosen on the Government’s proposal to the RFP. (Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang, (2010))

Creation of the NBN

NBN Co was created on 9th April 2009. Mike Quigley was credited as the chief executive officer on 25th July 2009. McKinsey & Company and KPMG completed their analysis on the NBN and came to the conlusion that it could be implmented and contributed 84 recommendations. In December 2010, NBN Co released its business plan, including forecasts and network design.  Under the business plan, a lot of changes were made with a recommendation of increasing the peak speed to one gigabyte per second.

The National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 was passed by the Parliament on the  28^th of March 2011. Amendments were made by the Greens and independent senators that revolved around freedom of information, transparency and competition concerns. For the NBN legislation to be passed through the parliament, the government required support from the Greens.  Although the Greens voted for the NBN legislation to be passed, they also won support for changes to be made in the NBN Co., which would subject them to be free of information laws and for any submission to privatization of NBN to be checked by the Parliament and Productivity commission. The need for support of the senators, minor party members along with independent party members for the NBN legislation were also required.

Telstra came under the requirement for structural seperation by the federal government, NBN Co therefore came to an agreement with Telstra in June 2011 where Telstra agreed to disconnect their customers. As part of the agreement, Telstra would receive A$9 billion post tax value and for acouple of years, Telstra would not be able to market their network against the NBN. (AlirezaTourani-Rad, ZoltanToth (2006))

Media

The NBN have a group of prominent Australians, each respected experts in their fields, who are passionate about helping households and businesses for the better understanding of high-speed broadband benefits. They represent key areas which the NBN will impact such as health, education, business and innovation.  (Breda Kenny, John Fahy (2011))

Policy Debate

Since the idea for the NBN has been put forth, it has been in the limelight for criticism and praise from the public, insutries and politicians. The NBN’s main criticiser has been the Coalition saying that the NBN is a dangerous idea, and that instead of just focusing on bettering the current network all resources will be put into something completely new.  While Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce says that the NBN is vital for the country for reaching the corners of the country where the market has failed, also adding that it delivers a stretegic infrastructure outcome. The Greens say that the NBN a vital piece of 21^st century infrastructure. Microsoft, Google and Intel have also shown interest in the NBN. A survey was conducted in Australia about Internet usage and when asked if the NBN was a good idea. The idea was accepted and 74.5 per cent agreed. NBN has had a large support among the internet users and the younger generation. (Sally Rao Hill, Barry Burgan, IndritTroshani, (2011))

References

• Jock Given, (2008) “The eclipse of the universal service obligation: taking broadband to Australians”, info, Vol. 10 Iss: 5/6, pp.92 – 106
• Sally Rao Hill, Barry Burgan, IndritTroshani, (2011) “Understanding broadband adoption in rural Australia”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 111 Iss: 7, pp.1087 – 1104
• Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang, (2010) “Broadband infrastructure investment in stimulus packages: relevance for developing countries”, info, Vol. 12 Iss: 2, pp.41 – 56
• AlirezaTourani-Rad, ZoltanToth (2006), Difficulties in Value Creation: Telecom New Zealand’s Acquisition of AAPT Ltd, in J. Jay Choi, Reid W. Click (ed.)Value Creation in Multinational Enterprise (International Finance Review, Volume 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.209-227
• Breda Kenny, John Fahy (2011), SMEs’ Networking Capability and International Performance, in Roger Baxter, Arch G. Woodside (ed.) Interfirm Networks: Theory, Strategy, and Behavior (Advances in Business Marketing and Purchasing, Volume 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.199-376
• Patrick Xavier, (2003) “Should broadband be part of universal service obligations?”, info, Vol. 5 Iss: 1, pp.8 – 25

SOLUTION

Public policy can never be value free, nor can solutions to problems always be based on evidence.

Public Policy making process which is being followed in Australia is a bit directionless and in limbo, because of not surviving regular or periodical affirmations from the government at all the levels of public policy to consultation-based and evidence –based approach. That is why there is great deal of attention which is being given to the policies which are called “failed policies” means the policies which are unable to deliver what they are intended to deliver and do not achieve what they are supposed to achieve and as a result they are called failed policies or policies which do not have any value (Howard, 2012).

There are many public policy areas which  government find s it difficult to get the policy grip and some of them are: assistance for manufacturing industry, broadcasting and media policy, health and hospital funding, schools funding, asylum seekers and  refugees,  labour market policy and  vocational education and training (Howard, 2012). Creating policies in these areas is complex and controversial as they are unable to face the several reviews and inquiries which are commenced on them over the years. Making ‘policies on the run’ is the biggest problem which is a feature of Australian Government, where ministers will just announce the policy initiatives during the election campaigns, include the new proposals to the budget without testing them or simply take decisions  just as a response to lobbyists and representatives.

Policies which are made in such manner depict juts partial understanding of the matters which are critical to the issue and carry ideologically based perception of the situation. That is why there are many examples which can be quoted for policies which have been created ‘on the run’ and are va.lue free or devoid of any value public policies. Some of the examples re: Building the Education Revolution, FuelWatch, Green Loans Program, and Grocery watch, The “Alcopops” Tax, Darwin to Alice Springs Railways, Green Car Innovation Funds, Home Insulation, and Set Top Boxes for Pensioners.

Australia’s biggest infrastructure project has visions of creating a nation which moves at the fast speed of light, by creating a project called The National Broadband Network. For the believers NBN is to the 21^st century what national road system and railways supposed to be in the past two centuries. It is merely a digital field of Dreams Theory: where you juts build the network and they will come. But for the critics in case of NBN government is simply envisioning that it knows better than the markets. Finally on 7^th April 2009, the governments terminated the (Request for Proposals) RFP processes citing the reason that none of the RFP’s gave value for money and they themselves will carry this plan (Hawker, 2012).

The announcement of NBN public policy neither canvassed nor referred to options or policy alternatives. It did not even reflect a socio-economic cost/benefit analysis or any kind of extended consultation. Neither the Green or White Papers were prepared. NBN Co. Was a project or public policy which falls in the category of ‘design and construct’ and such approaches require high level of transparency, clear definition along with separation of roles and accountability which is not at all visible in this whole policy development and implementation plan?

If according to the plan everything goes well by 2020 93% of the Australian homes and businesses will all be connected to a high-speed, faster, high-capacity broadband network with the help of fibre-optic cables. This project can be termed’ fibre to the premises’ because the fibre optic cable will be rolled out to the doorstep of every dwellings, factories and offices in Australia. The cable is capable of delivering a speed of 100 megabits per second and according to the CISRO predictions this would be around 18 times faster than the average broadband speeds in Australia at present. The remaining 7% locations which are in regional and remote areas and beyond the rollout of fibre-optic cable can get the broadband access by a combination of wireless and satellite, which will be quite expensive. According to government estimates it will require $36 million to build along with a $26 million taxpayer subsidy. Although critics opine that this estimate is underestimated and the cost blowouts will certainly occur along with delays in the NBN public policy.

Moreover the pricing of NBN Co. is truly based on cross subsidy model according to which the city users will have to pay more than they would have paid in free market and considerably more than its costs just to get the NBN services, so that the bush can be subsidised (Tugwell, Thompson and Long, 2012). So how can this public policy be of any value to the general public for whom it has been designed by Australian Howard Government. This way the economic purists also feel that the main principle of public policy and economics will get offended that says that the subsidies to nay interest group should always be transparent.

Alongside this economic argument against NBN , there is technological debate also that no doubt fibre optics is the fastest and bets technology for transmitting data , but the laying cost is very high. Another great debateable point is that when most of the people have started using smartphones, tablets and laptops in order to access their emails and internet, then where is the need to upgrade to fixed-line broadband for which NBN has been crafted. The “future is wireless” is the new slogan of the new techno-freak millennium. Thus the huge growth in the wireless devices market poses a potential and bigger challenge for NBN in future. Going wireless all the way renders NBN public policy all the more value free or without any value.

The big question which springs up is that do we really need any public policy like NBN as there are hardly any applications at present in Australia which require the capacity or the speed which will be delivered by NBN. The critics of public policies are dubious that whether the technology of fibre-optics will really in future be able to deliver the productivity benefits as desired or not (Tugwell, Thompson and Long, 2012).

Policy Making is a creative activity which helps in problem solving fundamentally. It is not amenable to a ‘cookbook’ approach or a standardised menu as it needs the proper involvement of knowledge and thinking both inductively as well as deductively. Policy Making is a capability which needs attention and focus on design-thinking or creative thinking-in action. Policy especially public policies should be informed by using understandings and knowledge which have been developed or created by engaging the citizens or public. The engagement of public can be done through proper communication using traditional techniques of consultation and the latest tools of social media. There is found to be good chances for  approaches regarding policy making which use methods and techniques of open innovation which includes crowd-sourcing also (Deemertzis, 2009).

The evidence-based approach follows a broader context in relation to public policy making as it is open, engaged as well as inclusive. In the current policymaking environment which is particularly contemporary, policy making should be considered as a networked fact collecting and brainstorming exercise and not just analytical cloister or discrete search which is being conducted within a bureaucracy. Public policy is the result of interaction between various actors present in the system. Various actors which are in the system are  charities an d foundations, government departments and  agencies, businesses and business organisations, universities and research foundations, NGO’s , individual citizens and  consultants.

The evidence—based policy making is very difficult to create and sustain, that is it should have the capability to adopt and then apply and use information as well as knowledge in a typical setting of policy. So of the capabilities mentioned above is missing then the evidence-based policy will be considered unoriginal and superficial? Thus it will be dismissed simply as a fad or a buzzword. The evidence –based policy making has been strongly advocated by Productivity Commission (Banks, 2009a) (Banks, 2009b) with good support from think tanks (Staley, 2008) , Australain Public Service Commission (Briggs, 2006) , consultants (Allan, 2011) and policy academics (Head, 2008) (Edwards and Mark, 2011).

But in case of evidence based policy making it has tendency for collecting the evidences at the 6^th stage which is the weakest form of evidence for policy making and this why evidence –based policy making has been criticised for its usage in scientific fields. That is why the solutions to the problems cannot be based on the evidences. There are several problems and paradoxes which are found attached in the evidence-based policy making (Greenhalgh and Jill, 2009). It is not just evidence which affect policy making or finding solution there are several other factors too which influence policy making like personal values, prejudices, ministerial staff, belief, lobbyists etc. Thus Australia needs to invest in capacities which are able to generate evidence and have the tendency to adopt, apply and use the proper knowledge while making public policies. The need is to adopt more ‘business –like’ approach .The idea of ‘ business –case’ would be justified for creating public policies which have value and these policies are real time solutions for the problems which are not just evidence based but are also knowledge based and have several factors also considered. In business case application the government will first issue a ‘Green paper’ to testify the proposal and then ‘White Paper’ will be issued to announce what the public policy will do.

Bibliography

Allan, P. (2011) Evidence-Based Policy, Percy Allan and Associates.

Banks, G. (2009a) ‘Challenges of Evidence-Based Policy Making.’, Contemporary Government Challenges. : ProductivityCommission, Australian Public Service Commission, Canberra.

Banks, G. (2009b) ‘Evidence Based Policy Making: What is it? How do we get it?’, ANU Public Lecture Series presented by ANZSOG. Productivity Commission, Canberra.

Briggs, L. (2006) Passion for Policy: Essays in Public Sector Reform, Canberra: ANU Press.

Deemertzis, M. (2009) The Wisdom of Crowds and Public Policy, Amsterdam: De Nederlands Bank.

Edwards, M. and Mark, E. (2011) ‘Getting Evidence into Policymaking:Parliamentary Triangle Seminar Report.’, ANZSIG Insights, Canberra.

Greenhalgh, T. and Jill, R. (2009) ‘Evidence Based Policymaking: A Critique’, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 304-18.

Hawker, B. (2012) The National Broadband Network: Research Brief, Canberra: Hawker Britton.

Head, B. (2008) ‘Three Lenses of Evidence Based Policy’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 67, no. 1, pp. 1-11.

Howard, J.H. (2012) ‘Public Policy Drift: Why governments must replace ‘policy on the run’ and ‘policy by fiat’ with a ‘business case’ approach to regain public confidence’, Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA), April, pp. 1-45.

Staley, L. (2008) Evidence Based Policy and Public Sector Innovation, Melbourne: Institute of Public Affairs.

Tugwell, N., Thompson, G. and Long, S. (2012) National Broadband Network, [Online], Available: http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/national-broadband-network/ [2 June 2012].

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